Sorry this has taken so long, but this is a little long, so maybe it's worth it. Anyway, things have been crazy as usual in the world of EMS, so I haven't had much time to write. This chapter is dedicated to the real Doc Newswanger, who loves what I did with his character. Enjoy, and please review! Reviews make new chapters come faster!

Trevor was duct taped securely to the chair by the time the paralytic began to wear off and he started fighting the ventilator

Trevor was duct taped securely to the chair by the time the paralytic began to wear off and he started fighting the ventilator. When he heard the whistling sound it was making, Doc was at his side immediately. "Okay, Trevor, I know you've seen me do this before. I deflate the cuff, and you cough while I pull the tube out. Got it?"

Still unable to talk with the tube between his vocal cords, he nodded as much as his weakened muscles would allow. He could see Teri lying unconscious on a metal table across from him. Doc smoothly extubated him and Trevor gagged and coughed as it came out. "Wha-" he croaked, trying to talk.

"Hang on," said Doc, reaching for a bottle of water sitting nearby. "Here, drink some of this. It will help."

Helplessly, Trevor drank from the bottle raised to his lips. It actually did help, and he was able to speak. "What the Hell are you doing?! What did you do to Teri? Is she okay? Let me go!"

Doc looked pained. "Trevor, I'm so sorry. I didn't want any of this to touch you two. I tried to steer you away from this, but your sister just had to be smart. She tries so hard to prove herself, and this time she just managed to do it. She figured it out, like I told you. I tried to get her to help me, but she wouldn't. She didn't understand that I have to do this. She would understand, though. If it was you."

Trevor realized then just how badly off his rocker his friend was. This was bad. Unless there was some way the FBI guys could pull off some of their magic, he and Teri were screwed. The best thing he could do was stall. "Doc, explain it to me. Maybe I'll understand." He suddenly remembered what Gideon had said. "Is this about Ben? Tell me. I'll understand. We're both brothers, right? We both have someone to protect."

Doc almost smiled. "Of course. I can't put you through this without you knowing why. I tried to explain it to Teri, but she just couldn't understand." He pulled up a chair, and if Trevor could forget that he was taped down and Teri was unconscious, they could have been sitting in the ER discussing a bad run. Doc could be telling him that he and Teri did everything they could, and that sometimes people just die, and that they should go have their post-code ice cream and just accept that sometimes death wins.

Doc's next sentence and the matter-of-fact way that he stated it shattered Trevor's fantasy of normality and told him beyond the shadow of a doubt that his friend was gone. If this man had ever been the Bobby Newswanger he had known. "They told me it was the only way to keep what happened to Ben from happening to others. Out of all the doctors in the world, the army chose me to help them."

"The army?"

"Yeah," Doc said, serious as he had ever been. "It's all top secret, but I guess I can tell you. I trust you two. Besides, neither of you will be getting out of here alive, so it doesn't matter. I just want you to know what you're dying for. You and your sister's sacrifice will save so many soldiers. You'll be heroes."

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Gideon was absolutely sick. How could he have lost the county sheriff in a hospital emergency room? But he had no idea the unsub was looking for another victim. There was no reason to suspect that the boy had been in any danger. "That's no excuse!" the little voice in his head nagged him.

If what Morgan was saying, that Doc was the unsub, they at least had a little hope that The Mitchell siblings could talk their way out of it. They were very close to Doc. Sometimes that humanity was enough, the simple connection. But not often.

JJ was handling the local press, not identifying Doc as a suspect yet, simply stating that all three of them were missing. Reid and Morgan were talking to Ben again, hoping to gain some insight. Prentiss was discretely interviewing hospital staff. Hotch was coordinating all of them from the jail. Bradley, who had been the secondary deputy to both Mitchells, as both sheriff and coroner, had called in a part-time dispatcher and was suddenly thrust into the middle of the chaos as the temporary sheriff. And coroner, but Gideon didn't want to think it would come to that.

There was little for either Gideon or Bradley to do other than go through the files. Both were going stir-crazy, wishing for something tangible to do. Finally Gideon stood up to get some coffee. "Going for some rocket fuel," he told the young man. "Want some?"

"Nah," said Bradley, holding up a bottle of Mountain Dew. "I'm good. Thanks though."

Gideon sat back down, thinking that there wasn't enough sugar in the world to make this coffee drinkable, when he noticed Bradley staring off into space. "Penny for your thoughts?"

Bradley had a wistful smile. "The last time I was in charge of the county like this was a year ago. Teri and Trevor went to North Carolina to visit their cousin, and I was running things. They probably weren't even unpacked when the BLS crew brought in Mitch, the old man who walked around town all the time. He fell over dead in the park. Doc and the ER crew worked him for almost an hour, but couldn't get him back. Doc hadn't been here for more than a month or so, and I had no clue what I was doing. Mitch didn't have any family, and I was totally at a loss as to what to do, where to take him, and all that. Anyway, one of the nurses made the comment 'Looks like we got the B team for the week'. Doc kinda laughed and said, 'No, the B team is out of town too. We got the junior varsity bench'."

Gideon chuckled. "You didn't take offense?"

Bradley laughed. "Would the Clayton Tigers take offense to someone saying they'd get creamed by the '92 Chicago Bulls? Heck, no. Teri and Trevor are the best." He paused and all traces of laughter left his face. "I hope they're all right."

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"So They told me that if I could find a way to get information out of them without 'harming' anyone we might have to return in one piece. I couldn't physically torture them, but I still had to cause enough pain to make them give in. So I thought back to the most painful thing that had ever happened to me."

"Ben getting hurt?" Trevor asked, trying hard to keep his voice even. As someone who grew up in law enforcement, he knew the difference between a general nutcase and a true psychopath. And unfortunately, Doc fell into the latter category. He genuinely believed the delusions he was acting on, and would not be dissuaded from it.

"Exactly!" Doc said. "Watching him suffer was the worst thing I can imagine. I would have done anything, told anyone anything, sold out everything I believed in to stop him from hurting. So I told Them my plan, and They said to gather sufficient data. So…"

Trevor's mind was reeling. "So you've been gathering data. Are things turning out the way you thought?"

Doc turned to the desk behind him and got his laptop. "It's all right here. I have ECG, pulse, blood pressure, on both subjects. I wish I had EEG reports, but I couldn't get that out as easily as I could the Life-Pak. Anyway, it proves beyond a doubt that the one forced to watch someone they care about be tortured experiences more distress than the one actually in pain."

Terror and adrenaline flooded him, but there was nothing he could do. He could hear the capital "T" in "They" and "Them". He was no profiler, but it didn't take one to see that Doc had separated from reality. "I understand. So, how much more data do you need?"

Doc's eyes flashed suddenly. "Do you mean, how many more do I have to kill? As many as it takes to keep people like my brother safe! Now, enough with the explanations…Time to get down to business." He paused, as he began hooking up the Life-Pak leads to Trevor's chest. "This is actually going to be very hard on me. I don't want to do this." He met Trevor's eyes imploringly. "I'm so sorry. I didn't want to hurt either of you." Attaching the last lead, he frowned. "I wonder if I should take telemetry on myself as well. This is going to hurt me too. I don't want to have to hurt Teri. But They say I have to."

He stepped over to the table Teri lay on, and Trevor squirmed helplessly in his bonds, unable to stop the man who he once considered a friend or rescue his sister.

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Gideon jumped as Hotch's hand fell on his shoulder. He wasn't aware that he had dozed of. "Come on," Hotch said. "Turns out Doc owns two buildings outside town. Morgan and Reid are on their way to one, we'll check out the other."